Chastity message from Slovakia — Anka Kolesárová
You have probably never heard about her. Yet, some days agou she was given to the whole Church as a model of brave defense of woman’s dignity. Maybe you even are not sure, where Slovakia lies on a map, yet there is a light of chastity shining since WWII for you. Her name is Anka Kolesárová, a newly beatified teenage girl. How can her story help us to uphold the message of chastity?

To the point of death
The story of Anka is compared to the story of Maria Goretti. She lived with her family in a small village Vysoká nad Uhom near the border with the Ukraine. In 1944, when the Soviet army moved to cast out Germans, one of the Russian soldiers came into Anka’s house. During the house-search he noticed her family hiding in a basement cellar. She was wearing black clothes of her deceased mum to make an impression of an older lady to protect her virginity. The soldier was drunk and agressive. The father instructed Anka to prepare some food for him up in the kitchen to calm him down. There he pressed Anka to give herself to him. She rejected him, resisted any of his threats and wrestled with him. Suddenly she ran out of his hands and ran back to the cellar. He jumped at her and shouted:
“Part with your father!”
The girl screamed:
“Daddy, bye! Jesus, Mary, Joseph!”
The soldier fired two shots. She died immediately. It was the 22nd November 1944. After her funeral, the priest wrote into the parish chronicles: Hostia santae castitalis (sacrifice of holy purity).
What’s the hidden storyline?
A story like this is hard to chew on. The day of beatification (1st september 2018) caused even a controversy in Slovak media. “What kind of model are catholics trying to present to our kids? The one who didn’t value life and exchanged it for a nowadays old-fashioned value of virginity? What is the virginity for a dead person for in the first place?”
Let’s make clear that Anka was beatified not for the fact that she was murdered, but for her extraordinary life. The brutality which happened within minutes might give us a clue about the hours and years filled with love and chastity in her thoughts and acts. I do not imagine the critical point before she was shot in a goofy way like suddenly, all the chaos in the house stopped and she played some kind of a quizz game — Purity or Death? When I contemplate the story I see her acting in a consistent way. Her strong belief about her infinit woman’s dignity, her personal experience with Christ as if he was right there in the room…, no wonder she refused to have even passive part on sexual violence. What we should wonder about is the grace and strength of her virtue.
You cannot be a hero and a saint by the means of improvisation. Let’s dig deeper in her life to find out. Anka was born on 14th July 1928. Her parents Ján Kolesár and Anna Kušnírová took her immediately on the second day to church to baptize her. Her father was strict, but righteous. In her tenth Anka lost her mum and she had to take care of their household and substitute their mother to older brother Michal. Because of the duties she didn´t have time to visit her friends, therefore they visited her and then they went together to holy mass or litany. Every Sunday she visited their neighbours where they prayed rosary together. Anka´s life seems very simple, yet it is exactly her 16 years, her days, which formed the life of a saint. Listening to her story, we can uncover the hidden story line. The 3 simple steps she walked daily to achieve virtue of chastity.
Chastity in 3 steps
- Intense prayer life (her gift of piety developed to the heroic level).
- Friendships and fellowship.
- Self-giving attitude towards her family and people around.
Strenghtened by Eucharistic Christ
According to the record of the priest Anna was encouraged by Eucharistic Christ, because just a while before the tragedy happened, she took confession and holy communion.
Growing following
The story of Anka was made known by a group of university students. They heard about Anka from their vicar Pavol Hudák in 1998. The story captivated them and they visited her tomb. They were so touched, that they offered the story of Anka to their peers as a subject of a weekend spiritual renew called The Pilgrimage of Joy. More than 200 came. Since then, there are Pilgrimages of joy four times a year. Later Pavol Hudák and his team started the pilgrimages of adulthood for young adults and pilgrimages of families. In the season 2013/2014 the theme of the pilgrimages was titled Theology of his/her body inspired by a book by Jason Evert.
Heroic chastity is a magnet. But more importantly, young people who come to her tomb experience forgiveness and healing of the wounds caused by relationships, misused emotions and sexuality. There are two thick books with written personal stories of young slovaks who found a new light of chastity after coming to Vysoká nad Uhom. Even their parents sometimes travel there to see the place where their kids found a new joy. This all has happened since 20 years before beatification.
Devotion and the defense of woman’s dignity
Her liturgical feast is set on the 20th of November. In the message of her beatification was written: “Out of love to Christ she bravely defended her woman’s dignity up-to the point of shedding blood.”. A woman must be respected and cherished. Men learn how to be a real man by the virtue of giving respect to a woman. Anka is offered to the whole Church as an intercessor. She might be trusted specially by girls whose dignity was dumped by men. But also for men who have hurt them and seek the new joy of chastity. No wonder Anka was listed among the young witnesses in a preparatory phase of the upcoming synod of Bishops on youth.
